The Effect of Dominant Land-Cover Transitions in Shaping Trajectories of Global Forest Change.

ABSTRACT: Land-cover transitions from forest to non-forest land-covers have led to substantial loss and fragmentation of global forests. While average rates of forest change are well studied, less attention has been paid to spatio-temporal trajectories of forest loss and recovery. These trajectories likely differ by land-cover transition types, and may be constrained by the initial amount and spatial arrangement of the non-forest land-cover. In this study, we distinguish between abrupt and gradual forest change trajectories, evaluating how they vary across land-cover transitions and how initial non-forest land-cover conditions mediate the amount and rate of forest change. To this end, we use annual global land-cover maps (1992-2020) from the European Space Agency's Climate Change Initiative. We find

SUBMITTER: Gupta A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12457455 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature